Mulling It Over

So this is a weird time, right? We can all agree on that? That this is weird? I think it’s weird. I’ve been following ol’ Rona since early February (risk management for an international missions organization has me running down all sorts of things), so the idea of a novel coronavirus is somewhat normal to me at this point. I understand (as best a laymen with a degree in biology (which was last used 7 years ago) can) the transmission patterns, how it moves, the most vulnerable, etc. I’ve consumed pages and pages of World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control, and 4 different governments’ worth of info on the subject. It became, in fact, somewhat of a simple and boring topic to me. It was in China. Maybe Taiwan and Japan. But nowhere near us specifically. It, like most things that happen around the world, didn’t affect us here at home. Until one day it did. I think I first really noticed the shift in our humble city of Gainesville while in our Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Admittedly when I started writing these blogs it was going to culminate in this post about Ashley’s engagement ring. I was gonna be all about what she means to me, what I was feeling, and what I thought the road ahead was going to contain. Let’s be honest, it was gonna be a sappy mess. No one was gonna be able to handle it. But here I am some 10ish months later having never written it. And now I’m 6 months into my marriage, and I think I’m finally ready. It wasn’t that anything I was gonna write was false, or that my plans suddenly changed. It just didn’t quite feel right. Life picked up. And I think I was trying to force the blog into something it wasn’t. Something it never needed to be. Because, you see, I don’t think I was aware of what that ring meant yet. So now that I’m sitting here, I’d like to share what both Ashley and I’s wedding rings mean to me. They signify love. They signify commitment. They signify growth. They signify joy. The

If you missed the lead up to this short series, go back and read about the Thailand ring. If you’re all caught up... Here is the story of the second of those three rings. The Sonship Ring The first part of June was Training Camp around the office. This is when new Racers come to our campus and go through a 10 day training, which many members of the staff help put on. This camp was special for a few reasons. First, I had proposed to Ashley only a few weeks before. Second, she was going to be mentoring one of the squad’s at this camp. This meant that I got to help train this group of Racers she’d be taking care of. So it was just cool to meet a new squad as someone who would sort of be in their life by association. Third, I was finally going to meet the Banse’s. Dan and Ruanne Banse are coaches for the World Race, meaning they are basically elders that speak into the lives of the Racers. They also get to travel to the field for debriefs. Dan and Ruanne have been work